Draft-equalizer.



No. 787,703. PATBNTED APR. 18,V 1905,v

I.. 0. SHBRVEN. DRAFT BQUALIZER.'

APPLICATION' FILED JULY 19, 1904.

@j wij:-

. of same.

UNITED STATES Patented April 18, 190 5.

LABS O. SHERVEN, OF MARSHALLTOW'N, IOWA.

DRAFT-EQUALIZER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 787,703, dated April18, 1905.

Application iiled July 19,1904. Serial No. 217,184.

To @ZZ whom, it 711,614/ concern.-

applied to a running-gear of a wagon without the necessity of boringholes in the runninggear or permanently attaching any of the parts ofthe equalizer thereto.

A further object is to provide an equalizer of this class to which onedraft-animal may be attached on one side of the wagon-tongue and twodraft-animals on the other side and the draft be applied to therunning-gear in such a way as to prevent side draft upon the tongue andto apply the draft to the front and back axles of the running-gear.

My invention consists in the construction of the draft-equalizer and inits arrangement and combination with a wagon, as hereinafter more fullyset forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in Which- Figure 1 shows a top or plan view of the completedevice applied to a wagon runninggear. The Wagon-wheels are omitted.Fig. 2 shows a central longitudinal sectional View Fig. 3 shows a detailperspective view of the device to be attached to the front end portionof the Wagon running-gear, and Fig. 4: shows a detail rear end view ofthe central portion of the bolster and axle of the rear portion of awagon running-gear to illustrate the device for attaching a draft-rod tothe rear end of the wagon.

'Referring to the accompanying drawings, I shall first describe thoseparts of the wagon running-gear to which my attachment is connected.

The numeral 10 indicates the front axle, upon which the bolster 11 ismounted. A king-bolt 12 passes through the center of the axle andbolster, thus pivotally connecting them.

The numeral 13 indicates the wagon-reach, the forward end ofwhich isinserted between the axle 10 and bolster 11 and is held in position bythe bolt 12.

The numerall indicates the front hounds of the wagon running gear, towhich the tongue 16 is pivoted by the bolt 17.

At the rear end of the wagon is the axle 18, upon which the bolster 19is mounted. The rear end of the reach 13 passes between the rear axleand the rear bolster 19.

The parts just described constitute the running-gear of the ordinarywagon now in common use.

My attachment comprises an evener-bar 20, having attached to its outerend a swingletree 21. At a point two-thirds of the length of theevenerbar from the end to which the swingletree 21 is attached I haveprovided a clevis 22, and the evener-bar is supported upon the tongue 16of the Wagon by means of a supporting-bar 23, one end of which ispivoted to the clevis 22 and the other end is connected by a bolt 24 tothe wagon-tongue. This bolt 24 is passed through the wagontongue at thepoint Where the opening is usually provided for attaching a doubletreeand is attached to the clevis 22 by a chain 22. Hence it is notnecessary in applying my draft-equalizer to the tongue to bore anyopenings not usually provided in a Wagon-tongue. At the other end oftheevener-bar 2O at a point a slight distance beyond the tonguethat isto say, on the side opposite from the side where the swingletree 21 isplacedI have connected the doubletree 25 with the evenerbar20. Attachedto the doubletree 25 is a swingletree 26 on the same side of the tongueas the swingletree 21, and on the other end of the doubletree 25 is aswingletree 27 on the opposite side of the tongue. In-this Way onedraft-animal stands on one side of the tongue and two draft-animals onthe other side, and the draft is equalized at the clevis 22. In thisconnection it is to be understood that the supporting-bar 23 is notprovided for the purpose of applying draft direct to the tongue, but issimply for the purpose of supporting the evener-bar 20.

I have provided a bracket to be mounted on the front end of the reach 13and held in place by the king-bolt l2. This bracket comprises a fiat bar28, designed to rest against the under surface of the forward end of thereach. It is provided at its forward end with an opening 29 to receivethe king-bolt 12, as shown in Fig. 2. On top of its other end is anangular sleeve 30, through which the reach is passed to thereby retainthe bar 30 in line with the reach. On the bottom of the rear end of thebar 28 is an extension 28, projected downwardly, then forwardly, andthen upwardly to a point near the central portion of the bar 28, atwhich point it is attached by means of the rivets 31. Pivoted to theunder surface of this downwardly-extending portion 28a is a lever 32,connected to the dow nwardly-extend ed portion by the pin 33.

The numeral 34 indicates a draft-rod attached at its forward end to theclevis 22 and at its rear end to the central portion of the lever 32 bymeans of the pin 35. At the outer end of the lever 32 I have attached adraft-rod 36, and this draft-rod is extended rearwardly and attached toa bracket at the rear of the rear axle. This latter bracket comprises ablock 37, through which the rear end of the rod 36 is passed, and saidrod is held to the block by means of the nuts 38. The said block restsagainst the rear faces of the axle 18 and the bolster 19 and is held inposition on the reach 13 by means of the metal loop 39, secured by thebolts 40 to the block 37.

In applying an improved draft-equalizer to the ordinary wagonrunning-gear I connect the supportingbar 23 with the tongue by means ofthe bolt 24, which bolt is passed through the opening ordinarilyprovided in a tongue for attaching a doubletree. I connect theevener-bar with the supporting-bar 23 by the chain 22a and then connectthe bar 28 with the front end of the reach by first removing theking-bolt 12, then passing the reach through the loop 30, and thenplacing the reach and the bar 28 between the axle 10 and the bolster 11,and then inserting the king-bolt 12 through the reach and through theopening 29. I then place the block 37 against the rear of the axle 18and bolster 19. The draft-rod 34 may thenbe connected with the lever 32and the clevis 22, and the draftrod 36 is then connected with the outerend of the lever' 32, passed between the axle 18 and the bolster 19,through the block 37, and the nuts 38 are then placed on its end. Inthis way all of the draft applied tothe clevis 22 is transmitted to thelever 32. My object in having this lever some distance below the reach13 is so that it will not interfere with the hounds of the wagon or Withthe front axle. The draft which is applied through the draft-rod 34 tothe lever is distributed upon the king-bolt 12 through the bar 28 andupon the block 37 through the draft-rod 36 because the draft-rod 34 isattached to the center of the said lever. The draft that is applied tothe block 37 is transmitted to the line with each other when the vehicleis be-` ing advanced, for the action of the draft applied to the frontaxle will be the .same as that applied to the rear axle.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desireto secure byLetters Patent of the United States therefor, is

1. The combination of a draft-equalizer, means for supporting it at itsdraft center upon the wagon-tongue, a draft-rod pivoted to the draftcenter of the draft-equalizer and extended rearwardly, a lever designedto be fulcrumed to the front portion of a wagon running-gear and havingsaid draft-rod pivoted to its central portion, a second draft-rodpivoted to the outer end of said lever projected rearwardly and inwardlyand means for connecting its rear end to the rear por tion of a wagonrunning-gear.

2. The combination of a bar formed with a loop at one end and an openingat its other end, a lever pivoted to said bar, an evenerbar, a draft-rodattached to the evener-bar and to said lever and a second draft-rod at,

tached to the lever and extended in a direction opposite from the rstdraft-rod.

3. The combination of a lever, an evenerbar, a draft-rod attached to theevener-bar and to said lever, a second draft-rod attached to the leverand a device shaped to receive the rear end of a wagon-reach and toengage the rear of a wagon-axle having said second draftrod attachedthereto.

4. rIhe combination of a bar formed with a loop on one end and anopening at its other end, a downward extension on the end thereof havingsaid loop, a lever pivoted to said downward extension, an evener-bar, adraft-rod attached to the evener-bar and to said lever and a seconddraft-rod attached to the lever and means for connecting it with therear of a wagon.

5. The combination of an evener-bar, a lever designed to be attached tothe front portion of a wagon, a draft-rod connecting the evener-bar andthe lever, a second draft-rod attached to the lever and a deviceattached to the other end of the second draft-rod comprising a blockhaving the draft-rod attached thereto and designed to rest against therear axle of a'wagonand a loop connected with the block shaped toencircle the rear end portion of a wagon-reach.

6. The combination of an evener-bar, a draft-rod connected with theevener-bar, a bar formed with a loop at its top on one end, an openingin its other end and a downward extension on the end having said loop, avlever pivoted to the downward extension, said draftrod connected to thecentral portion of said lever, a second draft-rod attached to the outerIOO IIO

ISO

end of said lever, a block attached to the rear end of said seconddraft-rod and a loop connected with the block designed to encircle thereach of a wagon.

7. The combination with a wagon runninggear, of an evener-bar` asupporting-bar pivoted to the evener-bar and to the wagontongue, a barformed with a loop at the top axle having, said draft-rod attachedthereto, and formed with a loop to encircle the rear end of thewagon-reach.

8. The combination of an evener-bar, a swingletreeattached to one end, adoubletree attached to the Aother end, a clevis pivoted to theevener-bar at a point adjacent to the end to which the doubletree isattached, draft de- -vices connected to said clevis and a supporting-barpivoted to the evenerV-bar at the point where the clevis is attachedprojecting toward the end to which the doubletree is attached to supportthe evener-bar on a wagontongue with the tongue near the central portionof the doubletree.

LARS O. SHERVEN. Witnesses:

M. A. EVANS, J. RALPH ORWIG.

